Camden People - John Hill, executed murderer

JOHN HILL was a young man with a well-deserved bad reputation in South Camden in the early 1890s. He was implicated but not charged in the drowning of 14 year-old Perry Jordan in July of 1891. In September of 1892 he fired three shots at bar-owner Daniel F Hurley, of 700 Sycamore Street. On October 17, 1892 John Hill lay in ambush and fatally shot Joseph Dodson in the 700 block of Sycamore Street. Arrested for his crime, he attempted to implicate his employers and to conceal his age, hoping for leniency if he was thought to be a juvenile. Unable to convince a jury as to the involvement of anyone else in the murder, he was found guilty and sentenced to hang for his crime. He subsequently confessed to lying about both his age and the involvement of others.

Little is known of John Hill's background. Most news accounts state that by 1892 he was an orphan. A newspaper report stated that he had two aunts who were living in Salem, New Jersey at the time of his execution, and that he had a half-brother who was the son of former Camden dog-catcher Norman Simmons.

John Hill was executed at Camden County jail on April 14, 1893.

Philadelphia Inquirer
July 19, 1891

Jesse Pratt - Joseph Gibbs - Ernest Waples
Perry Jordan - E.E. Jefferis

Philadelphia Inquirer
July 24, 1891

Jesse Pratt - Joseph Gibbs - Ernest Waples
Perry Jordan - E.E. Jefferis

Philadelphia Inquirer
August 4, 1891

Jesse Pratt - Joseph Gibbs - Ernest Waples
Perry Jordan - E.E. Jefferis

Philadelphia Inquirer
August 6, 1891

Jesse Pratt - Joseph Gibbs - Ernest Waples
Perry Jordan - E.E. Jefferis - John Hill

Philadelphia Inquirer
October 17, 1892

John Hill - Joseph Dodson - James Evans - George Hanson
William M. Butts - John Foster - Marwood Derrickson - Alfred Reed
C. Henry Peters - Daniel F. Hurley - Ida Fisher - Laura LeCount